OK County Jail faces allegations of inhumane conditions despite positive report from Crime and Justice Institute
OKLAHOMA CITY (KOKH) — New details and allegations surfacing this afternoon about the Oklahoma County Jail. Fox 25 attended the Criminal Justice Advisory Council meeting.
Experts shared the results of their five-year study on the jail, which focused on how the jail is reducing its population and creating a fair criminal justice system.
"The county has done a great job,"Molly Robustelli with the Crime and Justice Institute (CJI) said.
According to CJI, the Oklahoma County Jail followed many recommendations about overcrowding.
"Largely that has created a reduction in the overall jail population driven by a reduction in many municipal and lower-level misdemeanor offenses in the jail."
Though Robustelli admits there's room to grow.
"The county can do a better job of reducing the portion of the pre-trial population. That's something that remained pretty stagnant over time, and then also increasing the case processing speed."
Sean Cummings has a much different perspective about how things are going at the Oklahoma County Detention Center (OCDC). He shared a letter from a former detainee, partly mentioning their holding cell experience with other inmates:
There are multiple problems that need to be discussed.
BOOKING: Went decent. Not too many problems during that time. All the staff was actually looking into my charges and trying to help me.
CLASSIFICATION: We were in the holding cell for approximately 12 hours. There were individual's coming off Fentanyl, Methamphetamine, Cocaine and Crack Cocaine. The individuals would sit there, [touch themselves] IN front of everyone, and then flick their bodily fluids on the detainees.
After waiting for approximately 12 hours in the holding cell they take you to a LIVING QUARTER/POD. You get eaten up by BED BUGS. The bed bugs were horrific. They actually have bed bugs riding on the cockroaches' backs, and I am not exaggerating.
Also, during the time you're waiting on your actual cell assignment you're on lock down. NO SHOWER, NO Recreational time you stay on lockdown 24 hours a day for 3-5 days.
After your 3-5 days in the classification, they assign you to a pod and cell. That's when you actually get a shower. I was incarcerated for 5-6 days before I actually had a shower.
One of the Orderlies for the POD was licking all the meat, placing it back into the tray and serving it to the detainees. The orderly would take out the drink packages, and the meat for themselves.
The orderly had Fentanyl that Killed an inmate.
I had bed bugs bites, and it took me 10-11 days to even be seen by the nurse.
My court date was at least 20 days after being booked.
During my stay with Oklahoma County Jail there were 4 Fentanyl overdoses in which one did pass. Since one person messed up the whole pod was on lock down for four days. Even without the overdoses we were still on lockdown. Friday, Sunday, Wednesday, which were commissary days and change-out days, we were still on lockdown as well.
These are accusations that OCDC CEO Brandi Garner says she'll handle accordingly.
"That's just one of those cases we're going look into and see if there's any merit to any of the claims," Garner said. "We just continue to try make improvements as we go along."
Still, as vice mayor of The Village, Cummings says he's tried to avoid taking detainees to OCDC.
"We've had the choice to go to Midwest City for a few years because the Oklahoma County Jail is too dangerous."
But, according to Cummings, Midwest City canceled the contract. Now The Village might have no choice, but to bring its inmates back to Oklahoma County.
"It's a violation of their 8th Amendment rights," Cummings said. "They're getting eaten up by bed bugs. It's filthy. They're getting violated in there. That is not something anybody signs on for."
Garner says she takes accusations with a grain of salt, as sometimes it's factual and other times it's not. Regardless, OCDC does look into these claims.
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